Down to earth

While the mother and wife were busy in New York we grabbed a couple more days at our favourite resort. This time the weather was not friendly, but it doesn't matter getting wet when its warm, but Dave and I got a drenching when we went around the beach, it was so heavy we had to take the path under the trees and Dave found an icecream container to protect his camera, I was more prepared as I had my camera in my plastic bag for collecting shells. The boys and Alex enjoyed the beach












Back in Brisbane and so up to date with a reminder of Alex favourite















I walked across the new walking bridge linking the city to the Gallery, not sure what to think of the bridge with its mass of poles and wires. Ar least it was sunny



















A nice Brisbane sunset, shame about the power lines everywhere. We were dining out, our Tarrigindi Indian has moved to Salisbury and now has room to eat there instead of just take away












Its rained and rained and rained, so much so that things are appearing I have never seen before, this beautiful purple fungi popped up in the grass heap,much nicer than the weeds and bird seed dropped trees which are taking over the garden.

New Year on the high sea

Lucky there were some spare cabins on the Captain Cook cruise for those didn't want to spend New Years Eve in Suva.










A short walk down the beach late evening at the village where we had a lovo meal,








the cruisin' kids










the village dwarfed by nature












our ship dwarfed by nature











the coconut palm climbers








Where do you go when you still have days to spare in Fiji, back to Natadola of course

A warm Christmas

At my poetry group in New York, I wrote a poem, I'm not dreaming of a white Christmas, I'm dreaming of a warm Christmas with all my family here with me,
It turned out to be all my Australian and Fiji family here with me, a Christmas without cooking, but that meant none of the delicious foods we generally have for leftovers, but Christmas at Natadola was among the different ones we have had.
In my life so far I've had Christmas at Shelley Beach near Gosford for 8 years, a different beach somewhere on the North Coast of NSW for many years, at the Macksville house, at a hospital caring for patients, in Brisbane, on the Gold Coast, in New York and 5 years ago with family in New Delhi and if I have forgotten somewhere important its a senior moment.




I was fascinated by the different sea urchins in Fiji,different colour shell and different colour spikes, but the empty shells lying in the sand are so soft its difficult to carry one any difference,



I've been at Natadola many times but never walked to the point I see in the distance, this year I did,and this is what I saw when I looked around the rock, more of the same. The first picture is on Boxing day when I walked by myself, the second photo is on 27th when I walked again with Dave. A storm was threatening






















We did have a storm after we got back to our beach, fortunately the hotel provides umbrellas for occasions such as this





When we got back to Suva we had a big storm again, we left our dinner table and went inside for a while when the worst of the lightening and thunder was overhead. Lucky we could watch the rain and be dry

What will 2012 bring